Page:Aesthetic Papers.djvu/94

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84
The Dorian Measure.

school of arts and sciences, was the nucleus, the heart of every Dorian community. Did they found a colony? It was always at Apollo's command they went forth, and his temple was their first structure. The last myth was of the nymph Cyrene, carried off by Apollo into Africa. The life of the pious Dorian was like his god's,—the destruction of the ugly Pythoness, and a manly endurance; nay, a joyful expiation of all the inevitable consequences of this lofty action, amid the disturbing influences of time and circumstance. He was moderate and severe to himself, but never ascetic: that would not have been moderate. His recreation was music. Education itself was called by the Dorians, learning music. They did not confine this to learning accords of sound; but it was a study of the harmonies of man within himself, with the state, and with nature.

Hence the characteristics of the Dorian politics.

According to Müller, the Dorians did not consider the state merely or mainly "an institution for protecting the persons and property of the individuals contained in it;" but its essence was, that, "by a recognition of the same opinions and principles, and the direction of actions to the same ends, the whole body became as it were one moral agent." Again he says, "Whereas, in modern times, that which commonly receives the name of liberty consists in having the fewest possible claims from the community; or, in other words, in dissolving the social union to the greatest degree possible, as far as the individual is concerned; the greatest freedom of the Spartan, as well as of the Greeks in general, was to be a living member of the body of the state. What the Dorians endeavored to obtain, as a state, was good order (κόσμος), the regular combination of different elements. A fundamental principle of this race is found in the expression of king Archidamus, recorded by Thucydides, that it is most honorable, and at the same time most secure, for many persons to show themselves obedient to the same order (κόσμος). Thus this significant word expresses the spirit of the Dorian government, as well as of the Dorian music and philosophy, which was the Pythagorean system. Therefore, the supreme magistrate among the Cretans was called κόσμος; among the